things are looking up!

Wow, what a week! first, after a lot of phone calls, and ending with a trek to the job center to hand in a medical note that i had already sent to the DWP months ago (luckily i kept it after they returned it to me), i have FINALLY had my payments backdated. FINALLY i have a bit of money on which to live on. It really is worth persisting with these people, do never let them win and never let them beat you down!

I have also had some mail through about my tribunal, so I'm guessing that will be coming around sooner or later. I just hope i can get some representation before it does, and I'm not using the CAB again. Although they did not represent me for my DLA tribunal, the advice they gave me, meant that i lost the tribunal.

On a medical topic, yesterday i went to see my new Orthopedic surgeon. Probably the best surgeon i have seen to date. He was a nice bloke, cracked a joke etc, but also got down to the straight and narrow. After many pokes and prods, and several discussions about different forms of surgery, in the end we both decided to do some further investigating first.

First he will be arranging another MRI, but this time for my upper spine. (something i have been asking for for over a year now). Then, he is going to put me in a 2 week intense pain management course at Salford hospital, where they might put me up in a hotel as its quite a trek from Lancaster!

If the pain management course proves no results, then surgery will most probably be on the cards. And the surgery that will most likely happen is Disc Replacement surgery, where basically they remove the damaged discs from my spine, and replace them with fake ones!. He said that having operations like a Discecomy (complete or partial removal of the disc) would probably result in me being the same or even worse off than before, and having a PLIF - Posterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion, (AKA spinal fusion) would most like result in me being rather pain free, for about a year to 18 months, then, because of instability, the healthier discs above, which are already showing signs of natural degeneration, will quickly worsen, and i will be back to square one.

So basically, there is a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, but I'm still left with the basic fact, that no matter what anyone does, I am going to be in some degree of pain, for the rest of my life, and that to me, is the worse thing of all.